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Too big to fail is a inside take on the wall street crisis of 2008. It is about alpha male egos gambling with super high stakes consisting of somebody else’s money and finally being rescue again by taxpayers money. This book was a little difficult for me to read since I am not familiar with the world of finance, and the plethora of names made it still difficult. However, for somebody who is reasonable acquainted with wall street this will be a racy read.

The book starts with Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan prophetically announcing ” We need to prepare right now for Lehman Brothers filing. And for Merrill Lynch filing. And for AIG filing. And for Morgan Stanley filing. And potentially Goldman Sachs filing”. The financial crisis is some hollywoodian alien which is devouring the financial institutions one link at a time.

Further the book clearly points fingers towards the Fed “… it cannot be denied that the federal officials – includig Paulson, Bernanke, Geithner – contributed to the market turmoil through a series of inconsistent decisions. They offered a safety net to Bear Stearns and backstopped Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac but allowed Lehman to fall into Chapter 11, only to rescue AIG soon after….”.Dick Fuld initially appears as an arrogant *(^$*&^$ initially, strutting in hubris in the face of imminent problems, declining the Korean deal when (definitely in hindsight … pretty clearly in foresight as well) it seems to be the only way out. But then when Lehman is the only firm to fail rather allowed (or forced?) to fail he seems like a victim!

The summary by Buffet is very apt – “… its a little bit like Cinderella at the ball. People may have some feeling that midnight it’s going to turn to pumpkin and mice, but it’s so darn much fun, you now, when the wine is flowing and the guys get better looking all the time and the music sounds better and you think you’ll leave at fine of twelve and all of a sudden you look up and you see there are no clocks on the wall and – bingo, you know? It does turn to pumpkins and mice. It’s hard to blame the band. It’s hard to blame the guy you’re dancing with. There’s plenty of blame to go around. There’s no villain.”

Since Rahul Dravid has recently retired it is a good moment to salute his genius and more importantly his public image. It cannot get better than this … hats off we are all proud of you.

Now coming to the book review – The book is a fairly easy read with simple language and the pages fly. However, the book fails to weave a match in front of the readers eyes. I would rate the book extremely readable but not a must-read.

Some of my favourite parts of the book –

* Sanjay Manjrekar (I presume 😉 ) has been mentioned directly and covertly at many places … and ohhh boy I liked it. ” … there were biased elements in the media who wrote nasty things about him. There was a television commentator who probably believed that Rahul edged him out of the Indian team and hence struggled to say anything good about him … ”

* Rahul would catch the early morning BTS bus from Indiranagar to KSCA and work in the nets from 6:15am till 9am. He would then change into school uniform on the deserted stairs of the Western Stand, for in those days there was no changing room facility in the outside practice ground. He would wolf down the breakfast he has brought from home on the same stairs and then, with cricket kit and school bag thrown over his shoulders, he would run the couple of kilometers to school. Armed with his favourite fruit, apple, which he would devour while jogging to school, Rahul would reach late; at times a couple of hours would have lapsed. Further he would skip the last period of the day to attend nets in the evening and would once again go home in a crowded BTS”

* Also there is a mention of how he would have different friends for play (i.e., cricket) and for work (i.e., exams). Though this fact does not cast a good light on him … defines how he could be successful in both academics and sports.

* A quote from Dravid himself “… the problem would be keeping to Sri (J. Srinath). He gets tremendous movement off the seam, even with the new ball. The problem is that most of the time the tilt is into the right-hand batsman – the unnatural side for me as wicket-keeper. And the angle of the ball keeps passing the batsman, keeps going away on the leg side. This at his genuine pace, would not only test the wicketkeeper, but end up bruising the fingers of his left hand, i.e., the right-hand batsman’s top hand. Unless a wicket-keeper can collect Sri’s delivery cleanly all the time, he would end up with broken or bruised fingers…”

* The origins of the Dravid name is very interesting; and also the side note of Iyers in Tamilnadu are not considered Dravidians in the first place 😉

Some nit picking –

* Eulogizing of Pushpa Dravid. I am sure that Rahul and all the Dravid’s are very proud of Mrs.Pushpa. Mrs.Pushpa is successful and all the accolades and respect are well deserved. However, the extempore used to describe her in a book meant for her son seems out of place. I would rather have liked to know how she influenced her son rather than how she became successful. The detail of her struggle and achievements belongs to a biography of her own.

* More attention should be paid to spell check – Thimmappiah has been spelt as Thimmappaih 😦 South Indian names are not to be spelt in any which way. However this may be a mistake of the proof readers and not the author.

There are companies at war; war in the courtroom that is. The deep pockets hire the best lawyers and spies. Industrial espionage by siphoning information from where ever possible is the motto.

One of the methods is to screen all the people working at the opponents law firm and find somebody who has a past that is best kept a secret. Enter blackmail and get information by threatening to go public with the shaming details of the victims past deeds.

Kyle McAvoy, the brilliant Yale Law Student, is forced to accept a position in a prestigious law firm by his blackmailers who know what he did as a callow youth in the distant past. The objective is to steal information from the firm and provide it to his “handler”. Kyle knows that stealing of confidential and privileged information is only the beginning and such acts set him up for getting debarred and sacked but also for further blackmail. He know he is staring at a horrible future as an asset wherein he is damned if he does and damned if he doesnt. Does Kyle manage to hold onto his profession, ethics, marbles? Does he get sucked in by the blackmailers or does he manage to beat them at their own game? Read the book for the twists and turns. However the ending is lame 😦 but the journey is worthwhile. Good paperback read o a lazy weekend or during travel. Recommended.

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This book has been written in a very readable style. But I wonder why this made it to the best sellers list for such a long time. [spoiler alert] It is a book about a girl taking up a job with a hope that this job will be the key to future success. The job doesn’t turn out to be what she expected – rather it turns out to be a lot of things that rob her of her life and outright demeaning at times. She finally gathers the courage to quit – without actually having another job.

This may be every employees dream – quitting on the boss after showing the middle finger; however it is not a good action for anybody. Having source of income is very important as long as one has a hollow called stomach …

Recently read the autobiography of the cricketer Shoaib Akthar. The book is popular, I guess, based on the long waiting period in my library.

The book is well written and eminently readable. This statement is also a comment on the life of Shoaib Akthar 😉 very interesting to read. Shoaib takes this opportunity to call himself a “good boy” and all the unsavory events in his life were due to the many villains in his life; the enemies he made in his refusal to kiss-a**. Conforming, a large part of life, most importantly adult life is lost of Shoaib; though it is true that there is no dearth of pointy-haired-bosses (aka Dilbert‘s boss) who make life difficult for non-suckers. Sorry Shoaib, though I feel sorry for you at times, like the leaked (untrue as per Shoaib) personal medical reports, seniors considering juniors as competitors, etc., there are a lot of times where you do not come across as a “good boy”. Shoaib goes out of his way to pull-down Sachin Tendulkar … non-conformist again.

However it is a good read … as long as you are not in an impressionable age where you believe everything you read.

Nora Allison sees the coldness in the eyes of her fiancee when he slaps his young son, recognizes the man for what he is and calls of the wedding. This is followed by receiving threats by mail and being roped by the ex-wife of her ex-fiancee in the custody battle of their son. This bimbette is stupid enough to be framed in a murder case. Enter the suave Perry Mason with his intelligent secretary Della Street and the dependable sleuth Paul Drake – the real culprits are caught in court, the police are made to look stupid and the client goes scot-free.

Read the book to find out how it all happens.

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Perry Mason – one of my favorite characters. I was introduced to him during my adolescence by my Father (yes, the man who has taught me everything – and continues to teach me every day). Having briefly lived in Los Angeles I understand the locale and am old enough to remember an age without mobiles. I plan to update this post with book reads as and when it happens. Keep watching.

Perry Mason the smarty smart lawyer specializes in tricky cases where his client is usually an innocent bimbette but occasionally an innocent bumbler. He outwits the police who are framing his innocent client at times skating on thin ice legally. All this is with the help of his pretty secretary Della Street who loves the action. Perry Mason is ably supported by Paul Drake the very efficient and effective detective.